Indie stalwarts Kaiser Chiefs have announced a series of outdoor concerts in 2025 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their debut album, Employment, following the recent confirmation of a major homecoming show at Leeds’ Temple Newsam Park on May 31, 2025. The tour will commence on May 23, 2025, at the In It Together festival in Port Talbot, Wales. Subsequent performances will take place in various locations across the UK, including Bristol, Edinburgh, London, Brighton, Cumbria, and Newquay.
Employment was released in March 2005 and met instant critical acclaim and commercial success, earning seven-times Platinum status. Singles including ‘I Predict A Riot’, ‘Oh My God’, ‘Everyday I Love You Less and Less’, and ‘Modern Way’ became staples of a 2000s British indie scene and laid the groundwork for the band’s sound, borrowing both from britpop and post-punk, and characterised by laddy vocal deliveries and kitchen sink lyrical realism.
The album has also held up through multiple retrospective revisits by critics, with The Boar’s Charlie Peters praising its longevity on its fifteenth anniversary in 2015. “Employment easily holds up as one of the finest records of its kind. Other band’s of the era would kill for a tune as instant and catchy as ‘Saturday Night’, let alone the iconic ‘I Predict a Riot’, ‘Oh My God’, ‘Everyday I Love You Less and Less’ and ‘Modern Way’ which make up a killer quartet of radio cuts,” Peters wrote, adding: “The album reaches its highest point with the sublime ‘You Can Have It All’, a glorious, soaring ballad that marries drummer Nick Hodgson’s Pet Sounds-harmonies with one of frontman Ricky Wilson’s more charming vocal performances to magnificent effect.”
Really excited for these, who are we going to see at a show? https://t.co/T6bkkm3SeM
— Kaiser Chiefs (@KaiserChiefs) November 2, 2024
In a statement on their website about the album’s anniversary, the band remarked on the profound impact of their debut record, saying: ” 20 years ago, a brand new song by a brand new band was released. ‘I Predict A Riot’ was the start of something really special for some musicians from Leeds. And the album that followed, Employment, changed our lives and has soundtracked the lives of millions of others since 2005. In 2025 we are saluting 20 years of that album and everyone is invited. Come celebrate the 2000’s, loving everything less & less and stripey blazers taking over the world. See you all next year.”
The concert in Leeds will feature an slate of supporting acts from the mid-2000s indie scene, including Razorlight performing in celebration of their own debut album, Up All Night, also released 20 years ago. Other artists scheduled to join the line-up include The Coral and American indie rock band We Are Scientists, who will also honour the 20th anniversary of their debut album, With Love And Squalor.”
” As well as marking one of the great eras of British indie music, the band will also be keeping one eye on the future, inviting two of the most exciting new indie artists in the UK to open the day; Hastings trio HotWax and West Yorkshire’s own Ellur,” the release continues.
Tickets for the 2025 tour will go on sale here on November 8 at 9 AM, with fans encouraged to secure their attendance at what is anticipated to be a significant series of concerts celebrating a pivotal release in British rock history.
